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BMC Public Health
Published in: BMC Public Health 1/2010

Open Access 01-12-2010 | Research article

Social desirability and self-reported health risk behaviors in web-based research: three longitudinal studies

Authors: Rik Crutzen, Anja S Göritz

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2010

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Abstract

Background

These studies sought to investigate the relation between social desirability and self-reported health risk behaviors (e.g., alcohol use, drug use, smoking) in web-based research.

Methods

Three longitudinal studies (Study 1: N = 5612, 51% women; Study 2: N = 619, 60%; Study 3: N = 846, 59%) among randomly selected members of two online panels (Dutch; German) using several social desirability measures (Marlowe-Crowne Scale; Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding; The Social Desirability Scale-17) were conducted.

Results

Social desirability was not associated with self-reported current behavior or behavior frequency. Socio-demographics (age; sex; education) did not moderate the effect of social desirability on self-reported measures regarding health risk behaviors.

Conclusions

The studies at hand provided no convincing evidence to throw doubt on the usefulness of the Internet as a medium to collect self-reports on health risk behaviors.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Social desirability and self-reported health risk behaviors in web-based research: three longitudinal studies
Authors
Rik Crutzen
Anja S Göritz
Publication date
01-12-2010
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2010
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-10-720

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